President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has apologized for the government’s failure to allocate 4 percent of its budget to cultural affairs and promised to do so in the near future, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday.
Meeting with cultural industry representatives, Chuang Po-chun (莊伯仲), director of party’s Culture and Communication Committee, said the budget for cultural affairs had not been met because of the global financial crisis and natural disasters, including the Typhoon Morakot.
“President Ma apologizes for failing to reach the goal, but the government’s cultural budget has increased each year and we will make more of an effort to reach the goal,” Chuang said at KMT headquarters.
Cultural groups visited the KMT to express concerns about cultural policies amid recent controversies over a government-sponsored musical.
The musical, Dreamers (夢想家), cost NT$215 million (US$7.1 million) and drew criticism from cultural groups that the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA) wasted money and that the government had failed to allocate funds to cultural groups in a fair manner.
Former Council for Cultural Affairs minister Emile Sheng (盛治仁) resigned last week amid the uproar, but the cultural groups pledged to continue pressing the government for a greater emphasis on cultural development.
Director and conductor Tseng Dau-hsiong (曾道雄) said more than 2,000 people in the cultural industry and others have signed a petition calling for more emphasis on cultural development.
The movement will not stop until the government present solid cultural policies, he said.
Chuang said budget for cultural affairs under the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government varied between NT$5 billion and NT$6 billion, but the Ma administration has raised it to almost NT$10 billion.
Next year’s budget allocation will be more than NT$10 billion, which showed the government’s attention to cultural development, he said.
“There is room to grow in terms of the cultural budget and we will reflect upon the issues raised by the cultural groups. However, the DPP has no right to criticize government policies because it failed to put enough emphasis on cultural development when it was in power,” he said.
The cultural actitivists called for a presidential debate on cultural policies to be held on Dec. 26.
Chuang said he would relay their message to Ma.
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